Olympian trains children at UWS fencing club; “He helps me stay disciplined, but we still have fun”

By Scott Etkin

The Young Israel West Side Community Center, a synagogue on West 91st Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, may not be the place you’d expect to find Upper West Side Olympians. But at the Tim Morehouse Fencing Club, which has operated out of the synagogue since 2015, elite athletes traveling to Paris aren’t just there, they might even coach your child.

Eli Dershwitz, 28, who will represent the United States in the sabre competition this summer, coaches young fencers there four to five days a week. On a recent afternoon, the UWS club was teeming with children lunging and parrying in a long, narrow room. Dershwitz was in the thick of it, giving Sienna Young a lesson.

Eleven-year-old Young couldn’t believe it when she learned she would be coached by an Olympian. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is kind of crazy,'” she told West Side Rag.

And although it seems a world away from fencing classes on the Upper West Side, between the Olympics and fencing classes on the Upper West Side, Dershwitz has no trouble getting along with his students.

“It all comes down to the basic principles of movement, even if the speed is a little slower,” he told the Rag. “It’s just about building good habits, both in footwork and blade work, and making sure the kids are aware of how they’re moving and what’s happening to their bodies when they accelerate.”

Young, who started fencing at age 8, has listened carefully to him. “He’s taught me a lot about how important the core is. And you need really good footwork,” she said. “And he helps me stay disciplined, but we still have fun.”

Five athletes who train at the Tim Morehouse Fencing Clubs (there are also branches in Midtown, Westchester and Stamford, CT) have qualified to compete in the Paris Games. Mohamed Amer and Ziad Elsissy, who both compete for Egypt in the sabre event, also train students at the UWS club.

Dershwitz has a long-standing relationship with the club’s founder, Tim Morehouse, a three-time Olympian and silver medalist originally from the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx. Morehouse helped him navigate his way into being a professional athlete after college and becoming a coach. In fact, their relationship stretches back to when Dershwitz was a sophomore in high school in Dover, Massachusetts, and defeated Morehouse in a match, giving him his first “big break” in the sport. That’s why Dershwitz finds helping young athletes especially rewarding – he works with about 20 students on a regular basis.

“I’ve seen a lot of these high school kids who are now strong, nationally successful athletes, but I’ve seen them when they were 12 years old, just starting out,” he said. “Even outside of fencing, you can see that development over the years – building strength, building speed, building discipline, emotional and mental resilience. It’s just been really cool to see how (…) as a coach you can have a lot of influence on how you inspire young athletes to do their best.”

Preparing for the games

Dershwitz is the oldest member of the U.S. team’s sabre fencing team (the other two disciplines are épée and foil). He competed in the Rio Games in 2016 while studying at Harvard and fought in Tokyo in 2021.

After college, Dershwitz continued to live in Boston, but decided to move to Queens last fall to train with other elite fencers. “New York was the place where everyone trained last year to compete or go to the Olympics,” he said. “It just became clear that I needed to be here for elite-level training, to be able to push myself day in and day out.” A typical week includes: two strength training sessions, one session focusing on mobility and rehabilitation, two to three private lessons with his personal trainer, two sessions just for footwork training, and four to five fencing sessions with more footwork drills and competitive bouts.

When the real competition begins later this month in Paris, Dershwitz will have a fan base at the UWS. “I’m really looking forward to seeing him fence in the Olympics,” Young said. “He’s really fun to watch because he’s a very good fencer and someone to look up to.”

Fencing at the Olympics begins on July 27 and runs through August 4. NBC will broadcast the games, and the most comprehensive coverage will be shown on NBC’s streaming service Peacock, with some free highlights available on the NBC Olympics website. website. For those new to fencing, there is an explanatory video that explains what you see: HERE.

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